UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham is to chair an emergency meeting today (Wednesday, August 12) about the impact of this summer's heatwaves.

The meeting comes as the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) revealed that almost three-quarters of England is currently in drought.

According to Defra, roughly 71% of England is now experiencing a flash drought, which develops very quickly through a combination of very low rainfall and higher temperatures.

In addition, last month was the driest July recorded in 190 years, the department said.

It has been reported that many English farmers have had their earliest harvest in 20 years as a result, with winter fodder already being fed to cattle due to reduced yields and poor grass growth.

For dairy farmers, a lack of adequate feed for the coming months is expected to result in decreased milk volumes within their livestock.

Water use

Defra outlined that irrigation restrictions on farmers are now increasing, with 1,534 currently in place in East Anglia alone.

In light of today's emergency meeting, the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) urged Burnham to fix a planning system that it claimed is "blocking farmers from building reservoirs".

Under the current system, farmers firstly need permission to construct a reservoir and then they need an abstraction license to take the water to fill it,

According to the CLA, both of these processes can be "slow" and cost "£45,000 on average".

The farm organisation highlighted that only 34 on-farm reservoirs have been completed in the past five years.

Farm orgs

CLA president Gavin Lane said: "For years, farmers have been watching crops die in the ground because there’s not enough water.

"Yet every winter, rain pours down across fields that can be desperately short of water by summer.

The deputy president of the National Farmers' Union (NFU), Paul Tompkins also called on the government to help farmers access the water that they need during drought conditions.

Tompkins commented: "To help farmers and growers now, we need to see a risk register for vulnerable businesses and a more responsive abstraction licensing system.

"Longer term, a consistent and positive planning approach to reservoirs, further rounds of the Water Management Grant and targeted investment in climate adaptation will be vital to build farming's resilience to extreme weather."

Areas in drought

Defra declared that the following areas in England are currently in drought:

East Anglia;
Hertfordshire and the whole of London;  
Thames Valley;
Devon and Cornwall;    
Wessex;
West Midlands;   
East Midlands; 
Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire;  
Kent and East Sussex;
Solent and the South Downs.

The department listed Cumbria and Lancashire; Greater Manchester, Merseyside, and Cheshire; the North East; and Yorkshire as areas currently that experiencing "prolonged dry weather", which is the stage before drought.

Nowhere in England is currently deemed to be of "normal status" in terms of water availability, Defra said.